Ron Walker backs campaign to get life-saving cancer drugs put on PBS

Mr Walker with the Victorian Premier, Denis Napthine, at the Grand Prix in March.

ABC TV News

High profile sporting and business identity, Ron Walker, is campaigning to make potentially life-saving cancer drugs more readily available in Australia.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman has been diagnosed with melanoma and a secondary lung cancer.

He credits experimental treatment he received in the United States for the progress he has made in fighting the cancers.

Mr Walker is calling on the Federal Government to make more drugs available under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) and to cut the amount of time it takes to put new medicines through clinical trials.

"They're available in a lot of European countries and America," he said.

"They've been approved by the FDA and they actually work. I believe cancer today is becoming of epidemic proportions and it needs to be addressed.

"You can get drugs for all sorts of ailments these days but you can't get as many cancer drugs because they're too expensive."

Mr Walker says he hopes his long friendship with the prime minister-elect, Tony Abbott, will help the campaign.

"I have known him for 20 years and he and I enjoy each other's company and I'm sure he'll listen to what I've got to say," he said.

"Tony Abbott's a very compassionate person. He's been a former health minister and he understands the plight of some people who can't just reach out to get these drugs off the shelf."